Pulsing Darkness
by chibi-bandit
Summary: What happens when Sand ninja Gabrial Altera gets sent to recover her former friend's body only to find him still alive. Will she run away to serve him, or will she stay loyal to her village? WARNING: OC's, possible OC/Character shippings, changed events, and characters being OOC. Takes place after Gaara is rescued.
1. Chapter 1

So, this is the first chapter of a new story. I cant guarantee how frequent updates will be, and I'll work more on Pokemon when I fix my other computer up enough to get my chapters off of it...

I have a little request of everyone, check out my profile and let me know how y'all think that this story should be formatted.

* * *

I stood over the red-haired man, unsure of exactly what to do. I had been on my way to my next job, when I found him, barely breathing on the ground. I reached down to check his pulse, when I instinctively drew my hand back. Wind surged around me and I realized that the puppeteer I had been running from had caught up to me.

"There you are Altera." He stepped closer, and I hissed, drawing a kunai from my belt in a meager attempt to protect myself, "Ah, who's this person behind you. A pity, I think I'll have you kill him." I slashed out, extending my wind in hopes that I could stop any of his chakra strings from getting on me. I rapidly glanced between the puppeteer and the unconscious boy behind me. I knew I was at a disadvantage, and I needed to escape. Fast. I saw the boy stir at the moment a string caught my left arm. I slashed it off and knelt down to reach for the boy. If I could get him on my shoulder, I could run. Right before I could touch him, my body froze. I cursed, knowing someone had caught me with threads.

"Who are you?" The boy asked, as his grey eyes fluttered open. His glance was lazy, and I tried to pull back, but I was held in place. I noticed the blue threads coming off his fingers, and realized that he was the one holding me in place. He glanced behind me to see the other puppeteer and frowned.

"You're struggling against a puppet user?" He said, looking annoyed.

"Um, I can't move when you have strings attached to me." I whispered, hoping that the puppeteer wouldn't hear me. The boy in front of me smirked.

"Then I'll be using you." He said with a smirk. I felt my body move over to help him into a sitting position before he turned me to face the puppeteer.

"Altera, I know you want to fight with me. Why don't you just kill that guy and come back to me." I shuddered, and I heard the boy laugh from behind me.

"I don't think so." The boy said amusement lacing his voice as he summoned another puppet. He pulled me back to kneel down beside him. He draped his arm over my shoulder, and had me help him up. With a few gestures, he had the other puppeteer writhing in pain on the ground.

"So, Altera-" I cut him off the moment he started.

"It's Gabrial. Please, Altera's my clan name. Only my master can use it." He looked down at me with a smirk. I blushed and looked down when I realized that he still had me under his control.

"Gabrial. That sounds so familiar. It couldn't be though. What are you doing here right now?" I looked away, knowing that I shouldn't tell a stranger my mission.

"I'm out on a mission to confirm a death and remove evidence." I said, knowing that he wouldn't let me go until he got what he wanted.

"Who's death?" I felt my face burn up at his question. When I had received the orders, I had been saddened to have to go through with them. I had known the man since I was young, since I served his family, and he had promised to be my master when we grew up. When he had left the village, I had been assigned to the next puppeteer.

"Someone who I was supposed to work with eventually. Until he left, that is. Now will you please let me go?" He laughed, and I could have sworn it was the same musical laugh of my old friend. I felt movement return to my limbs, and I sighed happily. With a quick stretch, I reached for my pocket to check the picture I had been given. When I pulled it out, I noticed a second picture flutter to the ground. The boy grabbed it before I could get it.

"So it was you." He muttered before returning my picture, "Good luck finding him."

I stared at the picture trying to figure out what he meant when it clicked. That had been my target. Sasori of the Red Sand. I smacked my head before running after him.

"What do you want Gabrial?" He asked without even turning to look at me.

"Idiot. I thought you were dead! You cant expect me to just walk off and ignore you." I said as I barely kept pace with him.

"Yes I can. Go back to the village. Go protect the Kazekage, and go back and serve that puppet using brother of his." He whipped his arm around in an attempt to knock me out, but I caught it. Years of martial arts had caused my unnatural reflexes to be high enough to at least catch blows from my weakened friend.

"No. I want to stay with you." His eye twitched as he looked at me. He sighed before lowering his arm.

"If you still remember the basics of taking care of puppets, you can accompany me until someone comes to retrieve you." I nodded and stood at his side, bouncing on my toes.

"Thank you Sasori!" He shook his head and led me to a cave. When we got there, he sat down to start cleaning sand out of his joints, motioning for me to help him. I picked up a small brush and gently brushed the sand out, carefully making sure not to scratch his puppet body. He relaxed a bit and allowed me to take over cleaning while he closed his eyes.

"Gabrial, you know I can't keep you, right? I left the Akatsuki, and now I'm just a rogue ninja. People will be out to kill me. If you stay, you'll die." He said when I finished cleaning. I swallowed. It hadn't occurred to me that staying with Sasori would be dangerous now. He looked up at me, and I met his chestnut brown eyes, "See, look how scared you are. Go back to the village. Report that I'm still alive. They'll send someone to kill me, and you can go back to being happy without me."

"If someone comes to look for me, I'll go back. For right now, I want to spend time with you." I said, reaching for my dog tag. I frowned when I realized it wasn't where I normally wore it. I stretched and Sasori put a hand on my back. I looked up to him, and saw him frowning at my back.

"You're bleeding." I shrugged and resumed stretching. I heard him get up and rummage around in a small tool kit, "Take off your vest, I need to treat your injury." I felt him tug at my vest and I blushed.

"Sasori, I don't feel comfortable…" I tried to start, but he quickly ended my struggles with some chakra strings. I unwillingly shrugged my vest off, and I shrieked at the pain that suddenly started.

"Sorry, I need to sterilize your cut. There's sand in it. After I finish that, I'll have to stich it shut." I let out a whimper, tears streaking my cheeks as it felt like my back was burning. I hated needles. I felt pressure on my skin and promptly passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

Here's the next chapter. It may take me a while to upload another chapter, I need to focus on helping an entire class, me included, pass calculus. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 1

I woke up with a start when cold water was splashed over my face. Sasori did not look thrilled that I had passed out.

"You're a ninja, right?" I nodded, cringing at the irritation in his voice, "You see regular combat to the point of severe injury, but you passed out the moment a needle touches your back. What would happen if you faced a medical ninja who used a needle as a weapon?" I shrugged and rubbed at the stiches until he moved my hand away.

"I'd find a way. I'm not that weak. Besides, someone would be controlling me, so it doesn't matter what I would want to do." I said, unable to really move under his control. He dropped his chakra strings and looked away, seemingly guilty over snapping at me.

"It's not- look, that came out wrong. You need to fight on your own, regardless of your being a puppet or not. What if something happened to your puppet master? You have to be able to fight." I turned to glare at him, silently telling him to stop before he dug himself any deeper.

"Look, I can fight! So what if I'm scared of needles. It wont come down to me fighting a ninja wielding a needle on my own." I snapped angrily at him. He glared right back at me. I stood up and went to sit over by the wall, purposefully ignoring Sasori. I closed my eyes, fully intending on getting a real nap so I could recover some of my lost chakra.

When I woke up what seemed hours later, I found my body moving without my consent. When I realized that Sasori didn't know I was asleep, I pretended to still be sleeping as he moved me. When he released the chakra strings, I was in his arms, his chin resting on my hair.

"You really are a strong girl Gabrial." His voice rumbled in his chest, "You're so good. You shouldn't hang around with me. Go back to the village and live a peaceful life." He whispered, blowing some hair into my nose. I sneezed and looked up at him blearily.

"We need to move." A blush painted over his face as he released me to start bustling around collecting his belongings.

"Where are we going?" I asked, skipping up next to him.

"We're going no where. You are going back to the village, and I'm going to continue wandering." He shot me a look that dared me to protest before he started walking. I hesitant followed him, not wanting to return to my home.

"Sasori, why do I have to go back there? They don't let me do anything while Kankuro is out, and they don't let me go along on his bodyguard duties." I tried to reason with him, but he only shot me another look. He just ignored me for the rest of the journey back to the village. When we reached the outskirts, he stopped. I knew he couldn't go any farther without risking getting caught. As he turned to leave, I grabbed his wrist. He turned to look at me, confused to why I was still holding his wrist.

"Go on Gabrial. Go back home now." He stopped when he saw my shoulders shaking. He carefully wrapped his arm around me and helped me sit down on the ground.

"I don't want to lose you again! I just found you after so many years." I whimpered. He signed and patted my head. I looked up at him, and he wouldn't meet my eyes. I stood up and turned to leave when a familiar puppet came crashing towards Sasori. I surged forwards and cut the chakra strings, causing the puppet to crash to the ground right at Sasori's feet.

"Kankuro." I called, knowing that the puppeteer was close by.

"Altera, what are you doing with this traitor?" He asked as he hopped out from behind a dune.

"She's doing nothing with me. I was escorting her home after I found her nearly passed dead from her mission." Sasori said, leisurely shoving me forward. I staggered before tripping. Kankuro snickered at me, causing Sasori to glare at him.

"Right. She shouldn't have been on a mission in the first place. So what were you doing out Altera?" I looked down before pulling one of his scrolls out of my pocket.

"Another puppeteer came and stole this. I went to go get it back. Also, the village asked me to retrieve a body." I tossed the scroll to Kankuro, not knowing which puppet it was. I pulled out my mission file and held it up so he could see it.

"Why would they have you go on a mission on your own?" He asked incredulously asked. I grinned before shaking my head.

"You were out, and they finally got the guts to send someone to try and recover Sasori's body. They sent me because I know the ins and outs of how a puppet works. And you were out of the village at the time." I pocketed the paperwork before turning to look at Sasori again.

"Well, Sasori, it's been quite a while. Are you planning on attacking Gaara again?" He asked, a sneer in his voice.

"No. I'm returning Gabrial. Now, I'll take my leave." He turned, and I saw Kankuro's puppet twitch. I put a hand on Sasori's shoulder and got ready to block another puppet.

"Not without a fight you aren't." Kankuro sent his puppet surging up at Sasori. I felt the Sasori's strings take control of my body, and he moved me out of the way of the puppet. I felt the strings lesson, and I spun a kick at the puppet attacking Sasori. I grabbed the kunai that had slipped out of my pocket with my left hand, and did a quick hand sign to infuse it with my chakra. With a quick slash, I cut through the strings keeping the puppet moving. Sasori's strings strengthened, and he had me rush towards Kankuro. With my right hand, I readied the strongest punch I could. Sasori's chakra strings tightened further as he forced me not to hurt Kankuro. The power I had in my punch dissipated till I only had enough power to leave a small bruise.

"I win. If I was using a real puppet, you would be dead at this point." Sasori said as his strings dropped from me. Kankuro looked livid as he collected his puppet.

"Sasori's right. If you didn't die from the impact of a weapon, you would have died from the poison he coats his puppets in." I said as I pocketed the kunai. Kankuro turned to glower at me.

"Altera, I don't care what your opinion is. You're just a puppet." I flinched and looked away. Sasori turned to look at me, and I just shrugged.

"Gabrial is not just a puppet. She's a girl who is good enough at fighting to kick your ass before you could lay a finger on her." Sasori said with a smirk, "In fact, she would have injured you if I hadn't weakened her last blow. I barely controlled her during that fight. Pretty good for 'just a puppet.'" I saw Kankuro glare at Sasori. Kankuro reached to hit me, but I dropped to my knees an instant before his fist could make contact with my cheek. I braced my foot in the sand and pushed the heel of my hand towards his chin. Inches before my hand hit Kankuro's chin, sand rushed up to stop me.

"Lord Kazekage." I said as I fell to my knee when I realized that the leader of my village walk up behind Kankuro. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the kick Kankuro was aiming at my head, but instead I only heard the thud of a foot against sand.

"Kankuro, Gabrial, why are you two fighting?" I looked up at Gaara and then looked back at the ground. I knew after Kankuro would tell Gaara that I had fought him under the guidance of Sasori that I would be exiled from the village.

"If I may, Lord Kazekage, I was escorting Gabrial back from a fight that she was ill-suited for, when Kankuro challenged me to a fight. I used Gabrial as my puppet, as I lost all of my puppets. You know Gabrial doesn't stand a chance against puppet masters who want to use her. As far as I can tell, Gabrial committed no treason. Her assignment was to find my corpse and return it back to the village. Now, if you would be so kind as to take her back, I've got jobs to do, and time not to waste." With that, Sasori spun and dashed off. I looked down at my knees, waiting for my punishment from the Kazekage.

"Gabrial, rise." I looked up at the Kazekage before scrambling to my feet. I looked down at my clenched hands, wondering what he was planning. "What happened on your mission that you had needed to be saved by an exile?" He asked with a simple grace.

"Sir, I was just minding my own business, about to leave to go towards the Akatsuki headquarters to investigate his corpse, when I saw a ninja leaving Kankuro's room. He had one of his scrolls, so I followed him. When he noticed me, he attempted to catch me in chakra strings. I stopped him, but was forced to run away. When I thought I had lost him, I stumbled across Sasori unconscious. I didn't recognize him at the time, since I thought he was older. Then the puppeteer caught up to me, and I almost got caught again. Sasori took control of me, and fought off the puppeteer with a different puppet. Also, he lied about not having another puppet. He just didn't want to risk hurting Kankuro. When Kankuro saw us, it was right of him to attack. Sasori was my childhood friend, and I was very close to him. Had I not had duties, I would have followed him to the ends of the earth. Please give me whatever punishment you deem." I said, watching the Kazekage's face for any sign of anger or disappointment. When I finished, he closed his eyes and sighed. He traded glances with a sheepish Kankuro before turning to face me again.

"Gabrial, I know of your bond with Sasori. Kankuro and I were just headed out to look for you. I'm not sure why you got tasked with looking for his corpse, but I did not authorize that mission. I'm sure you can see why Kankuro did not trust your motives. We heard from one of my advisors that you had gone to abandon the village after hearing about his death, and we almost believed it. The only thing that made us doubt his story was the fact that we found your dog tag on the ground. Naturally, I can't officially let you off without punishment, just as I can't just let Sasori live." I gasped at this before covering my mouth. I turned around and tried to stifle the tears that threatened to leak out. Gaara waited patiently until I was composed enough to face him again before he continued.

"Gabrial, I know this is hard for you to hear. Sasori still is an S-ranked criminal. Although, we do have proof he died. I believe that I have a reasonable punishment worked out for you. It has come to my attention that there are many people who do not think that you are fit to be working along side of my brother. Many of these people deliberately try to taint our minds against you. I have a proposal. Since 'Sasori' is technically dead, and we have someone claiming to be him running around, I would like you to follow him and figure out if he is dangerous, and who exactly he is. If he is Sasori, then find out how he survived when people clearly saw him die. If he truly is the same S-ranked criminal, and he seems to be a threat, then I want you to end his life. If he does not appear to be a threat, then I would like you to remain at his side and keep tabs on his activities. I expect a report every week, until we have determined what the best course of action is. This mission is confidential, and should anyone ask you who the man you travel is, you must not tell them that he is a criminal. Call him by another name if you have to. I will send you messenger birds when it is time for you to report. Do you accept this mission?" I looked up at the Kazekage, wondering if he was serious. When he nodded, I fell to my knees.

"Yes, I accept" I said between sobs. The Kazekage knelt down beside me and wiped the tears off my cheek. Kankuro rolled his eyes before ruffling my hair.

"Get going then Altera. If you wait to long, you wont be able to catch up." Kankuro said as he turned to walk back towards the village.

"Brother, don't you have something to give Gabrial first?" The Kazekage said with a wicked twinkle in his eyes. Kankuro stopped, freezing as if someone had shocked him. He sighed and pulled something out of his pouch. He tossed it to me over his shoulder before dashing back towards the village. I caught it and looked at my greatest treasure.

"I know the chain is new, but we had to get it fixed. Kankuro was really worried when we found it. I guess the old chain had worn down enough to break. This one should work a lot better. Kankuro used his money to buy you the best and most durable chain he could." The Kazekage whispered as he knelt down beside me.

"I would ask you to thank him for me, but I take it he didn't want me to know. I'm really grateful to have this back." I said with a smile. The Kazekage stood up and started to walk back towards the village, speeding towards the retreating form of his brother. I stood up and sighed. This mission would probably be the death of me. I guess the lore of my clan dying early was more than just a myth. I slipped my dog tag back on before rushing off towards where I thought Sasori had run off.


End file.
